A bid to turn a former medical centre in Maidenhead into a nursery has been blocked after neighbours warned children could be ‘maimed or killed’ by vehicles.

Early years company Kinderzimmer had ambitions to convert the Bridge Clinic at Bridgewater Lodge on Bridge Road into a nursery for 126 children. It has already gained permission for works inside of the listed building, but still needed permission to change its use.

Yet councillors from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council blocked the change after neighbours warned there would be ‘public outrage’ if the plans were given the go-ahead.

One neighbour, Ian Wallace, made the case against the plans at a meeting of the council’s Maidenhead development management committee on Thursday, September 19.

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Mr Wallace argued that plans for vehicle access to the site would pose a risk to small children at the nursery.

He noted that the council’s highways department had objected to the plans having assessed that most of the children would arrive by car, without enough safe parking spaces.

Visitors would approach the site’s main entrance at the rear of the building along Guards Club Road, which is unlit and has no pavement.

Mr Wallace said: “Councillors – how many small children would you like to see maimed or killed before you consider this proposal an extreme highways safety risk?”

Yet developers argued that the highways department had ‘overestimated’ how many visitors would arrive by car – branding its assessment ‘inflammatory’ in a written response.

And planning consultant Neil Raleigh argued that a higher number of arrivals by car ‘simply isn’t going to happen’. He told the committee: “Nursery children arrive at staggered drop-offs in the morning and leave staggered in the afternoons.

“There’s be cars coming and going but nothing that’s not expected for a commercial building in an edge of town centre area.”

Council planning officers also argued that the plans should be approved. They said that national planning rules say developments should only be refused on highways grounds if there is a ‘severe’ impact on highways safety.

The officers argued that there would only be 16 extra trips to the site during the morning peak, and that pedestrian access would be provided along Guards Club Road.

They said the highways department didn’t object as long as there was a condition on developers to come up with a plan to encourage walking and cycling to the nursery.

But councillors on the committee disagreed – arguing that it would take a long time for parents to drop off children, and that traffic would back up along the A4 Bridge Road.

One, Maureen Hunt, said: “I’m not comfortable going forward on this and I would move to refuse it.” Councillors on the committee voted to refuse the plans unanimously.